settingswhenever

Settingswhenever is a concept in configuration management describing a policy or DSL that applies configuration settings automatically in response to predefined events or conditions. It is designed to minimize drift and manual intervention by triggering updates whenever relevant changes occur.

Core concepts include triggers, scope, conditions, and actions. Triggers are events such as system startup, application deployment, network change, or user authentication. Scope defines the target domain for the settings, such as the local machine, a service, or a user profile. Conditions refine when settings should be applied, for example operating system version, environment (production vs. staging), or feature flags. Actions specify the settings to apply, which may involve enabling, disabling, or overriding values. Some approaches also specify precedence rules when multiple triggers apply concurrently.

In practice settingswhenever can be expressed as a declarative block or DSL, for example:

settingswhenever {

trigger: on_boot

scope: system

conditions: os == "Linux" && environment == "production"

apply: {

firewall.enabled: true

max_connections: 200

}

}

This illustrates the concept rather than a specific standard, and real implementations may vary in syntax and integration.

Adoption varies by organization and toolchain; it is often discussed alongside event-driven automation and policy-based configuration. Benefits include reduced manual effort and improved consistency, while challenges include managing complexity, conflict resolution, and performance overhead.

See also configuration management, policy as code, event-driven automation.